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Friday, 13 July 2007

Uh oh! Australia's Google Gaffe?

"The ACCC is alleging that Google, by failing to adequately distinguish sponsored links from 'organic' search results, has engaged in and continues to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct," the regulator said in a statement.

It said it was seeking declarations from the Federal Court that Google and Trading Post had breached trade practices legislation, as well as injunctions preventing Google from publishing results that did not distinguish adverts."

I would dearly love to see screenshots of the alleged infringment. I hope my 'sinking feeling' will not be justified. I hope this won't be yet another instance of the powers that be molly-coddling the more IQ-challenged in society. In my experience, sponsored links in Google search results have always been clearly identified. Oh well, let's see what evidence they present.